The horse industry in Colorado is instituting an Equine Smart Card identification program that will meet National Animal Identification System (NAIS) standards. NAIS is a national program being developed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and state agencies intended to identify specific animals in the United States, record their movements over their lifespans, and enable 48-hour traceback of the movements of any diseased or exposed animal. Carl Heckendorf, DVM, director of livestock disease and animal health for the Colorado Department of Agriculture, explained Colorado’s Equine Smart Card program in Colorado at the National Institute of Animal Agriculture’s annual meeting April 3-7 in St. Paul, Minn.

“Colorado is a brand state; many of the horses already have brand cards,” began Heckendorf. “But a brand shows ownership, while a microchip will show identification.” A brand is also unique to a premises, not a horse, and in the event of a disease outbreak, it is difficult to track a single horse based on a brand that could be on many horses scattered throughout the state and country.

“The Equine Smart Card will include health information, brand information, and material that can be updated more frequently such as health certificates,” said Heckendorf. “We’ll also incorporate RFID (radio frequency identification technology) methods with ISO standards (International Standards Organization; under the NAIS, all microchips must be compliant with these standards). We are looking at possibly integrating it with biometrics (digital iris scans) as well as DNA identification measures.

“The card will be read when there is a change of ownership, interstate movement, and movement within the state over 75 miles,” said Heckendorf. These situations already require brand inspections, so the horse owner will not be required to wait for additional involvement by government officials. “When the horse is chipped, that horse will be tied to a premises, and that premises will have GPS (global positioning satellite) coordinates. The coordinates will be noted each time the card is read at a readable premises (such as a horse event) to aid in tracking